Author: Vanyan Gary

A1plus
| 18:47:33 | 28-04-2005 | Social |
WILL ARCA BRING SUIT AGAINST ARMENTEL?
Not long ago when replacing wires of the 44th telephone station Armentel has
blocked the cash machines of the ArCa system. Today the 5-th birthday of the
company was celebrated in the Central Bank.
During a press conference ArCa Executive Director Shahen Hovhannisyan stated
that the company might bring a suit against Armentel. He also informed that
a system of joining the wires of the cash machines with each other and the
center located in the Shengavit community can be created.
To date, 14 banks of Armenia are members of ArCa system and two more banks
are willing to enter it presently. ArCa itself is integrated into the system
of MasterCard and VISA and provides services to the members of the system.

Turkish Press
April 27 2005
Turkey insists genocide campaign obstructs normalizing ties with
Armenia

ANKARA – Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Wednesday
an Armenian campaign to have the massacre of Armenians by Ottoman
Turks recognized internationally as genocide is an obstacle to
establishing formal relations between the two neighbors.
“Before we make a political decision (on normalizing ties), there is
a very important issue that should be resolved and this is the
problems stemming from history,” Erdogan told reporters.
He was commenting on a letter from Armenian President Robert
Kocharian, who accepted in principle a Turkish proposal to create a
joint committee to study the genocide allegations but that Ankara
should first normalize relations with Yerevan without pre-conditions.
Turkey demands that Armenia abandon its campaign for the recognition
of the World War I massacres as genocide before formal diplomatic
relations can be established between the two countries.
In 1993, Turkey also shut its border with Armenia in a show of
solidarity with its close ally Azerbaijan, which was at war with
Armenia, dealing a heavy economic blow on the impoverished nation.
Erdogan stressed Turkey had opened its archives to all historians to
study whether the massacres constituted a genocide, and urged Yerevan
to follow suit.
“Why don’t they open their archives? It is very curious,” he said.
“Let historians and experts work in the archives. If the outcome of
these studies require us to question our history, we will do that,”
he said.
Armenians say up to 1.5 million of their kinsmen perished in
deportations and orchestrated killings between 1915 and 1917.
Ankara argues that 300,000 Armenians and at least as many Turks died
in what was civil strife during World War I when the Armenians took
up arms for independence in eastern Anatolia and sided with Russian
troops invading the crumbling Ottoman Empire.
Armenians across the world Sunday marked the 90th anniversary of the
beginning of the massacres, which have already been recognized as
genocide by a number of countries.
Ankara fears that the genocide allegations could fuel anti-Turkish
sentiment in international public opinion at a time when it is vying
for membership in the European Union.
Some EU politicans are also pressing Turkey to address the genocide
claims in what Ankara sees a politically-motivated campaign to impede
its EU bid.

A1plus
| 12:36:36 | 25-04-2005 | Social |
SECURITY COUNCIL WITHIN THE CONSTITUTION
«What should the Security Council status be?», this was the poll question of
the «A1+» internet site this week. 233 people participated in it. The
majority – 57.9% think that its status must be envisaged by the
Constitution.
20.6% think that it must be a purely consultational body, and 12.4% think it
should not exist at all. For 9% it is all the same what the Security Council
status will be.
This week the site poll will try to find out if the deputy immunity should
be cancelled or not.

Génocide arménien
Paris maintient l’ambiguïté
Favorable à l’adhésion turque à l’UE, Chirac soigne aussi les
Arméniens de France, ne négligeant aucune voix pour le référendum du
29 mai.
Par Antoine GUIRAL
lundi 25 avril 2005 (Liberation – 06:00)
Jacques Chirac, c’est bien connu, est l’ami de tous. Donc des Turcs,
mais aussi des Arméniens. En recevant en fin de semaine dernière à
Paris son homologue arménien Robert Kotcharian, le chef de l’Etat
français a souhaité que l’Arménie «poursuive son dialogue avec
Ankara», notamment sur la question du génocide. De manière très
symbolique, les deux hommes se sont rendus dans le VIIIe
arrondissement pour déposer une gerbe au pied du monument arménien
dédié tout à la fois au musicien Komitas, aux victimes du génocide et
aux combattants arméniens morts pour la France.
Favorable à l’adhésion de la Turquie à l’Union européenne, le
président de la République cherche à montrer qu’il ne transige pas
avec les principes. Ses proches soulignent qu’il peut se permettre de
tout dire aux Turcs. Vendredi, il a ainsi rappelé que cette éventuelle
entrée dans l’UE passerait immanquablement pour Ankara par un «devoir
de mémoire» sur le génocide arménien. Pour autant, Jacques Chirac se
refuse à pointer plus ouvertement la responsabilité turque. En 2001,
le Parlement a adopté une loi qui stipule que la France reconnaît le
génocide arménien. Mais elle ne précise pas qui en sont les
coupables. Cette ambiguïté est révélatrice de l’attitude de la France
qui a toujoursvoulu ménager la susceptibilité turque.
Quoi qu’il en soit, la communauté arménienne de France (la plus
importante d’Europe) a apprécié le geste de Chirac. «Un événement très
important», a ainsi assuré Ara Toranian, président du Conseil de
coordination des organisations arméniennes de France. Alors que le non
au référendum du 29 mai est donné gagnant, le Président ne néglige
rien pour grappiller les voix susceptibles d’inverser cette
tendance. Les Français d’origine arménienne lui sauront-ils gré
d’avoir pour la première fois honoré de sa présence leur monument
auxmorts ? Jamais en reste pour prendre le contre-pied de Jacques
Chirac, Nicolas Sarkozy a assuré que son opposition à l’adhésion de la
Turquie dans l’UE «n’était pas liée» à la reconnaissance du génocide
par Ankara mais à son«idée de l’Europe qui doit avoir des frontières
et des relations avec ceux qui ne sont pas européens».

Daily Star – Lebanon
April 26 2005
Turkey must repudiate its policy of denial
Commentary by
By Charles Tannock
Tuesday, April 26, 2005
All wars end, eventually. But memories of atrocity never seem to
fade, as the government-fanned anti-Japanese riots that took place
last week in China remind us. The 90th anniversary of the Armenian
massacres of 1915, which was commemorated on Sunday, and that was
ordered by the ruling Young Turks of the Ottoman Empire and carried
out by the Kurds, is another wound that will not heal, but one that
must be treated if Turkey’s progress toward European Union membership
is to proceed smoothly.
Most people still know little about that dark episode. It is hard for
most of us to imagine the scale of suffering and devastation
inflicted on the Armenian people and their ancestral homelands. But
many members of today’s thriving global Armenian diaspora have direct
ancestors who perished, and carry an oral historical tradition that
keeps the memories burning.
It is particularly ironic that many Kurds from Turkey’s southeastern
provinces, having been promised Armenian property and a guaranteed
place in heaven for killing infidels, were willingly complicit in the
genocide. They later found themselves on the losing end of a long
history of violence between their own separatist forces and the
Turkish Army, as well as being subjected to an ongoing policy of
discrimination and forced assimilation.
Historically, the ancient Christian Armenians were amongst the most
progressive people in the East, but in the 19th century Armenia was
divided between the Ottoman Empire and Russia. Sultan Abdul Hamid II
organized the massacres of 1895-97, but it was not until the spring
of 1915, under the cover of the World War I, that the Young Turks’
nationalistic government found the political will to execute a true
genocide.
Initially, Armenian intellectuals were arrested and executed in
public hangings in groups of 50-100. Ordinary Armenians were thus
deprived of their leaders and soon after were massacred, with many
burned alive. Approximately 500,000 were killed in the last seven
months of 1915, with the majority of the survivors deported to desert
areas in Syria, where they died from either starvation or disease. It
is estimated that 1.5 million people perished.
Recently, the Armenian diaspora has been calling on Turkey to face up
to its past and recognize its historic crime. Turkey’s official line
remains that the allegation is based on unfounded or exaggerated
claims, and that the deaths that occurred resulted from combat
against Armenians collaborating with invading Russian forces during
the world war; or as a result of disease and hunger during the forced
deportations. Moreover, the local Turkish population allegedly
suffered similar casualties.
Turkey thus argues that the charge of genocide is designed to
besmirch its honor and impede its progress toward EU accession. There
are also understandable fears that diverging from the official line
would trigger a flood of compensation claims, as occurred against
Germany.

For many politicians, particularly in America, there is an
unwillingness to upset Turkey without strong justification, given its
record as a loyal NATO ally and putative EU candidate country. But,
despite almost half a century of membership in the Council of Europe
– ostensibly a guardian of human rights, including freedom of speech
and conscience – Turkey still punishes as a crime against national
honor any suggestion that the Armenian genocide is a historic truth.
Fortunately, the relevant article of Turkey’s penal code is now due
for review and possible repeal.
Indeed, broader changes are afoot in Turkey. The press and
government, mindful of the requirements of EU membership, are finally
opening the sensitive Armenian issue to debate. Even Prime Minister
Recep Tayyip Erdogan, under increasing EU pressure as accession
negotiations in October near, has agreed to an impartial study by
historians, although he has reiterated his belief that the genocide
never occurred. In France, the historical occurrence of the Armenian
genocide is enshrined in law, and denial of its occurrence is
condemned in the same way as denial of the Jewish Holocaust.
The European Parliament is pressing for Turkish recognition of the
Armenian genocide. It is also calling for an end to the trade embargo
by Turkey and its close ally Azerbaijan against the Republic of
Armenia, a reopening of frontiers, and a land-for-peace deal to
resolve the territorial dispute over Nagorno Karabakh in Azerbaijan
and to safeguard its Armenian identity.
Armenia, an independent country since 1991, remains dependent on
continued Russian protection, as was the case in 1920 when it joined
the Soviet Union rather than suffer further Turkish invasion. This is
not healthy for the development of Armenia’s democracy and weak
economy. Nor does Armenia’s continued dependence on Russia bode well
for regional cooperation, given the deep resentment of Russian
meddling in neighboring Georgia and Azerbaijan.
There is only one way forward for Turkey, Armenia and the region. The
future will begin only when Turkey – like Germany in the past and
Serbia and Croatia now – repudiates its policy of denial and faces up
to its terrible crimes of 1915. Only then can the past truly be past.
Charles Tannock is chairman of the European Parliament’s Human Rights
Committee.
This commentary is published by THE DAILY STAR in collaboration with
Project Syndicate ().

WROC, NY
April 25 2005
A very dark chapter in world history noted in Rochester
4/25/2005 9:00 AM
(WROC-TV)
Members of Rochester’s Armenian community gathered Sunday to mark the
anniversary of a dark chapter in history.
It was the slaughter of more than 1.5 million of their ancestors, in
what historians acknowledge as the first major genocide of the last
century.
This year marks the 90th anniversary of the start of the genocide,
perpetrated by the Ottoman government, as it sought to rid Turkey of
the Armenians who’d lived there for centuries.
Those of Armenian heritage have their own reasons for saying “Lest we
forget”.
And so on Sunday, they remembered, and noted the diferences between
the first wide-scale genocide of the 20th century, and the more
well-chronicled one which followed — the Holocaust of World War II.
A proclamation was read at the gathering at the Armenian Church of
Rochester, saying “whereas the modern German government acknowledges
the acts of commission on the part of the Nazi government…The
Turkish government is not to acknowledge that it happened. That’s why
we’re persevering in speaking louder and louder.”
Because while there remain many survivors of the Nazi holocaust to
give first-hand accounts, there’s almost no one left who saw what
happened to the Armenians.

Macleans, Canada
April 24 2005
Armenians mark 90th anniversary of mass killings in Ottoman Empire
AVET DEMOURIAN
YEREVAN, Armenia (AP) – Tens of thousand of Armenians on Sunday
marked the 90th anniversary of the mass killings of Armenians in the
Ottoman Empire, vowing to press their case to have the killings
recognized by Turkey and the world as genocide.
Waving flags and carrying flowers, people streamed through the
Armenian capital and marched up to a massive hilltop granite memorial
to hear speeches and prayers.
Weeping mourners filed into the circular block memorial, laying
carnations on a flat surface surrounding a burning flame. A choir in
black sang hymns as the crowd filed past, some carrying umbrellas
against the sun.
The country will observe a minute of silence at 7 p.m. (1400 GMT) and
Yerevan residents will place candles on window sills in memory of the
victims.
“International recognition and condemnation of genocide is a goal
that not only Armenia must achieve,” President Robert Kocharian was
quoted as saying by the Russia’s ITAR-Tass news agency. “Armenia is
ready to build normal relations with Turkey. However, the policy
being pursued by Ankara is surprising not only in Armenia, but
elsewhere in the world.”
Ottoman authorities began rounding up intellectuals, diplomats and
other influential Armenians in Istanbul on April 24, 1915, as
violence and unrest grew, particularly in the eastern parts of the
country.
Armenia says up to 1.5 million Armenians ultimately died or were
killed over several years as part of a genocidal campaign to force
them out of eastern Turkey. Turkey acknowledges that large numbers of
Armenians died, but says the overall figure is inflated and that the
deaths occurred in the civil unrest during the collapse of the
Ottoman Empire.
France, Russia and many other countries have already declared the
killings were genocide; the United States, which has a large Armenian
diaspora community, has not.
Turkey, which has no diplomatic ties with Armenia, is facing
increasing pressure to fully acknowledge the event, particularly as
it seeks membership in the European Union. The issue is extremely
sensitive in Turkey and Turks have faced prosecution for saying the
killings were genocide.
Ankara earlier this month called for the two countries to jointly
research the killings.
Armenian communities around the world also marked the anniversary,
with church services and demonstrations. In Moscow, hundreds attended
a memorial service at the construction site for an Armenian church.
In northeastern Syria, some 4,000 people flocked to the city of
Marqada, where thousands of Armenians are buried.
“We are here to remember our martyrs whom we should never forget,”
said Krikour Haydenian, a 33-year-old merchant.
An estimated 100,000 Armenians currently live in Syria.

Newsweek
April 23 2005
L.A.’s Armenian Idols
Meet System of a Down, hard rock’s unlikely poster boys.
By Lorraine Ali
Newsweek May 2 issue – The biggest coup in rock since Nirvana crept
past Poison on the charts more than a decade ago is probably the
mainstream success of System of a Down. Their name is weird; their
lead vocalist, Serj Tankian, sings like Freddie Mercury channeling
Slayer, and their music is nearly impossible to classify. (You might
call it prog-rock-metal-politico-pop with an operatic twist.) And
it’s flat-out impossible to imagine MTV’s spring breakers grinding to
songs about the Armenian genocide.

But System’s 2001 CD “Toxicity” turned out to be well timed: it
dropped just as rock fans were growing tired of bands such as Limp
Bizkit doing it “all for the nookie,” and it sold more than 3 million
copies. Suddenly, this unlikely band of Armenian Angelenos had become
the new face of hard rock. Now their pair of new albums, “Mezmerize”
(which will be out in two weeks) and “Hypnotize” (which will appear
sometime in the fall), are two of the most anticipated releases of
2005.
“I have to say that it still kind of freaks me out,” says Daron
Malakian, System of a Down’s main songwriter and guitarist. “We were
never like any of the other bands out there, and we still aren’t, but
here we are. Our new album is already on billboards all over L.A. and
New York. I still have no idea how this happened.”
Neither do we, but here’s how it started. Malakian grew up in
Hollywood, next door to Latino and Armenian immigrants and across the
street from a crack motel. “I used to ride my bike past the pimps and
prostitutes every day,” he says. Malakian’s parents, who’d emigrated
from Iraq, listened to Armenian music at home – his father had been a
choreographer for a traditional dance troupe before coming to the
United States – while their son soaked in the heavy metal and new wave
of ’80s radio. He taught himself how to play, and by high school had
started a band with singer Tankian. They eventually brought in John
Dolmayan on drums and bassist Shavo Odadjian, and signed with Rick
Rubin’s American Recordings label in 1997.
On the new “Mezmerize,” the anti-Iraq-war single “Cigaro” finds
Tankian and Malakian trading vocals like dueling opera divas, while
an instrumental on the follow-up “Hypnotize” sounds like a jam
session by a Mideastern wedding band, cheesy synthesizer and all. If
this all sounds off-putting, it’s not: it makes you wish more rock
bands would take such brave and impressive risks. “Maybe some people
would think it’s a strange blend,” says Malakian. “But it’s just
everything that’s out there in the world, filtered through us.” As
for the meaning of their name? Don’t bother asking – even the band
can’t quite explain. Chalk it up as one more thing about System
you’ll never understand.

US Fed News
April 21, 2005 Thursday 1:27 AM EST
GOV. SCHWARZENEGGER SIGNS TWO BILLS
SACRAMENTO, Calif.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, R-Calif., issued the following news
release:
Gov. Schwarzenegger has signed the following two bills:
SB 121 by Committee on Local Government – Validations.
SB 424 by Senator Charles Poochigian (R-Fresno) – Armenian Genocide.
See signing message below.
To Members of the California State Senate:
I am signing SB 424 which will permanently recognize April 24th as
the Day of Remembrance of the Armenian Genocide. This bill also
designates the period commencing the Sunday before April 24th and
concluding the following Sunday as the “Days of Remembrance of the
Armenian Genocide.”
Between 1915 and 1923, a systematic and deliberate campaign of
genocide by the Ottoman Turkish government resulted in the deaths of
over 1.5 million Armenians and the exile of a people from their
historic homeland. During this period, tens of thousands of displaced
Armenians took refuge in the United States, many in California. These
survivors embraced this country and this state. Among them and their
descendents emerged leaders in business, agriculture, sports,
academics and the arts. Today, a few survivors remain as a living
testament to the horror that took place 90 years ago. We must
recognize crimes against humanity if we are to prevent them; silence
in the face of genocide effectively encourages those who would commit
such atrocities in the future.
In 1981, President Reagan said, “Like the genocide of the Armenians
before it, and the genocide of the Cambodians which followed it and
like too many other such persecutions of too many other peoples the
lessons of the Holocaust must never be forgotten.” I am proud to
represent the people of the State of California in recognizing the
historical persecution of the Armenian people and join with them in
urging Turkey to acknowledge the fact of Armenian Genocide.
Sincerely,
Arnold Schwarzenegger

EUROPEAN ARMENIAN FEDERATION
for Justice & Democracy
Avenue dela Renaissance 10
B-1000 Bruxelles
Tel: +322 732 70 26
Tel/Fax:+322 732 70 27
Email: [email protected]
PRESS RELEASE
For immediate release
April 21, 2005
Contact :Talline Tachdjian
Tel/Fax :+322 732 70 27
CALL OF THE EUROPEAN ARMENIAN FEDERATION ON THE OCCASION OF THE 90TH
ANNIVERSARY OF THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE
Brussels, Belgium – On the occasion of the 90th anniversary of the
Armenian Genocide, the European Armenian Federation calls upon the
European civil society, representatives of associative organizations,
survivors of the Armenian Genocide, children and grandchildren of
Armenian Genocide survivors, representatives of associations for
the Defence of victims of Genocide and Crimes against Humanity,
Representatives of associations for the Defence of Human Rights,
representatives of associations and organisations signatories of
the Charter of European Armenians, and actors of European political
life, in signing a declaration urging the democratic and executive
institutions of the European Union to commemorate appropriately the
90th anniversary of the first Genocide of the 20th century, and to
reflect clearly the will of national Parliaments and the European
Parliament in that Turkey should recognize the Armenian Genocide in
all official documents regarding future negotiations with the Republic
of Turkey.
The European Armenian Federation considers that this anniversary,
falling on the actual year set for the opening of negotiations with
Turkey, must mark a turning point in the priority given to the Genocide
issue by the European Executive in its relations with Turkey.
The European Commission, in the framework of defining its perspective
on regional policy, made reference to the Armenian Genocide in its last
report on Turkey. The Commission, however, failed to use the proper
term of genocide, and, inappropriately, reduced this international
issue to a simple bilateral one between Turkey and Armenia.
“Accepting a denialist country in its midst, is first of all, a serious
problem for the future of Europe. The European Executive cannot ignore
anymore the continued calls of national Parliaments and the European
Parliament, whose resolution of December 15th, 2004 asked the European
Commission and Council to demand that Turkey recognize the Genocide,”
said Hilda Tchoboian, Chairperson of the European Armenian Federation.
The Federation recalls that many European countries were witnesses
to the annihilation of the Armenians, which occurred on the
borders of Europe, while others actually were complicit in its
implementation. Others promised to work for justice and to institute
legal proceedings against the responsible state and its guilty
leaders. In the end, however, these promises were never fulfilled
due to political compromises by the Allies, which led to a general
amnesia regarding this tragedy throughout Europe.
“The Europe of today – made up of these states – cannot escape its
responsibility for addressing this crime. The duty of memory is
essential for all Europeans and European democratic institutions,”
noted Tchoboian.
The declaration of the European Armenian Federation is open to all
democratic and constituent organizations that comprise European
civil society.
The text is available on and hereunder.
If you cannot sign this call online, candly print it out, sign it
and send it to us at
EUROPEAN ARMENIAN FEDERATION
Avenue de la Renaissance 10
B-1000 BRUXELLES
BELGIUM
Fax: +322 732 70 27
email: [email protected]
****************************************************************************
EUROPEAN CALL ON THE 90th ANNIVERSARY OF THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE
Ninety years ago, the then government of the Ottoman Empire, lead by
the Young-Turks, launched and executed the deliberate annihilation
of the Armenian people.
In less than two years, 1 500 000 Armenian men, women and children
were uprooted from their homes, and made to march to their death
under inhuman and despicable conditions.
The genocide was perpetrated to encroach upon the Armenians’
ancestral lands and to reduce to silence their call for freedom and
social justice.
Today, there remains less than 70 000 Armenians in the Turkish Republic.
The consequences of this crime are incalculable and continue until today.
In addition to the suffering it caused, the genocide was designed to
create a Turkish nation in a turkified Anatolia. The despoiling of
the Armenian properties was systematic and thus it transferred the
economy into the sole hands of the Turks. In fact, the organisers
succeeded in transforming the destruction of the Armenian people into
a national enterprise.
The Turkish Republic of today is build upon the extermination of
Armenians, the expulsion of survivors and of other minorities,
mainly Christians; Created by the perpetrators of the Genocide, it
continues to extend its moral and material prejudice by continued
destruction of the national heritage and remnants of the Armenian
civilisation in Western Armenia, by the oppression of the remaining
Armenian minority and by the hateful and aggressive denial of the
reality of the Genocide.
The International community and particularly the European States had,
at the time of the genocide, immediately condemned this crime as an
“outrage against humanity”, affirming that it would institute legal
proceedings against the criminal State and against those persons
responsible for these acts. But, confronted with the geopolitical
importance of Turkey and commercial opportunities, the commitments
for Justice were progressively forgotten.
Since then, in the face of the denial by the Turkish State, Europe
recognized the Armenian Genocide in the European Parliament with
the resolution on June 18th, 1987. Furthermore, a large number of
national parliaments of member States recognized followed suit in
official recognition.
>>From 2000 to 2004, the European Parliament regularly called upon
Turkey to assume its responsibilities in recognizing the Genocide.
Today, on the occasion of the 90th anniversary of the First Genocide of
the 20th century, and the beginning of the negotiations for Turkey’s
accession to the EU, we affirm that denying the Genocide by this
country would put into danger the founding values of Europe for
justice and peace.
We,
– Representatives of associative life and European civil society
– Survivors of the Armenian Genocide
– Children and grandchildren of Armenian Genocide survivors
– Representatives of associations for the Defence of victims of Genocide and
Crime against Humanity
– Representatives of associations for the Defence of Human rights
– Representatives of signatory associations and organisations of the Charter
of European Armenians
– Actors of the European political life
– Consider that current Turkey remains legally and politically responsible
for this crime against Humanity,
– Consider that Turkey must recognize its responsibility in this crime
– Call upon the European institutions to solemnly commemorate the Armenian
Genocide during 2005
– Call upon the European Executive, the European Commission
and Council, to implement the Genocide recognition by the
European nations, integrating the demands expressed by the
European Parliament on the recognition of the Genocide in
the official documents for the framework of negotiations
with Turkey.
Date:
Place:
Name:
First Name:
Tel:
Fax:
E-mail:
Address:
Zip Code:
City:
Country:
####